Nefertini posts game win in Go for Wand

Robert Masterson's Nefertini earned the biggest win of her 10-race career
with a game performance in Friday's Grade 2, $196,000
<a target="_blank" href="http://www

Robert Masterson's Nefertini earned the biggest win of her 10-race career
with a game performance in Friday's Grade 2, $196,000
Go for
Wand Handicap at Aqueduct.

Tracking a length behind 3-5 favorite Fantasy of Flight through splits of :23
4/5 and :46 4/5, Nefertini was sent to the lead by jockey Alan Garcia around the
far turn. After dispensing with the favorite and opening up a one-length
advantage after six furlongs in 1:10 2/5, the 9-1 chance was then forced to
repulse a serious bid by second choice Willet through the final furlong. She did
so, gaining the victory by a neck in a time of 1:35 4/5 for one mile over a fast
track.

"I was very close to the speed," Garcia said. "(Trainer Alan Goldberg) said
to put her right in the game. (Willet) came to me, and (Nefertini) was fighting
and didn't want to get beat."

"I think the mile got her at the end," jockey Rajiv Maragh said of runner-up
Willet. "By the sixteenth pole, she was at the end of her rope."

A daughter of Empire Maker, Nefertini rewarded her backers with mutuels of
$20, $5.30 and $6.90. Willet finished second, 1 3/4 lengths ahead of 17-1
outsider Hard Life. R Gypsy Gold and Fantasy of Flight completed the order of
finish.

Nefertini made just three starts in her first season of racing, capturing her
debut over the turf at Parx Racing before securing minor awards in a pair of
grass allowances. In her four-year-old debut on March 4, she prevailed by a
half-length over Fantasy of Flight in an allowance on Aqueduct's inner dirt.
After a more dominating allowance win at Parx in her next start, Nefertini
entered the stakes ranks with a second in the Heatherten at Belmont and a
half-length victory in the Monmouth Beach at Monmouth Park. She entered the Go
for Wand following a fourth in the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher and a third in the
Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap. Her record now stands at 10-5-2-1,
$316,320.

Bred in Kentucky by Tenlane Farm, Nefertini was an $80,000 Keeneland
September yearling. She was produced by the stakes-placed Looking Afar, a
daughter of Broad Brush, who was a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Survivalist,
stakes winner Power Game and multiple Grade 2-placed Polish Miner.

Nefertini's second dam was Miner's Game, a full sister to multiple Grade 1
winner and noted sire Seeking the Gold, and a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Fast
Play and Grade 3 victor Stacked Pack. This old Phipps family pedigree also
includes 1967 juvenile filly champion Queen of the Stage and noted sire
Reviewer. More recently, this female family has yielded multiple Grade 2 victor
King Cugat.